Reed-organ



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREEMAN D. DEXTER, OF WINFIELD, NEW YORK.

R'EED-ORGAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 588,713, dated August i24, 1897. Application iiled January 2 5, 1897. Serial No. 620,519. (No model.)

To all whom 'it may; concern.:

Be it known that I, FREEMAN D. DEXTER, of NVest Vinfield, in the county of Herkimer and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Organs; and

I do hereby declare that the following is a full, v clear, and exact description of the invention,

which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form part of this specification.

' In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a vertical section of an organ (omitting portions of casing) embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a partial horizontal section taken on aline with A B of Fig. 1 adjacent to the center of the instrument and on a larger scale. Fig. 3 lshows details of construction on larger scale.

Referring to the reference letters and iigures in a more particular description', L indicates the frame or casing so far as shown.

2 3 indicate the keys of the upper and lower banks, respectively.

The exhaust-chamber is formed betw een the two valve-boards M N, which are placed back to back. The exhaust-chamber consists of two parts 4 and 4', connected by openings 5,

pted to be closed by a valve G. At the -uwer end the exhaust-chamber 4 is put in communication with the exhaust-bellows 7 by opening 8. The bellows 7 is operated by a spring 9 and is placed in communication with bellows 10 by a passage-way 11, closed by avalve 12. The bellows 10 is operated in its opening movement by a treadle 13 and is closed by a spring 14. The air is expelled from the bellows 10 through an openin g closed by the valve 15.

Opposed to each of the valve-boards M and N are provided reed-boards X and Y, respectively. .The space between the reed and valve boards is divided into a series of cells by partitions a a, &c. These cells I term valvecells. rThis part of the construction being the same practically on both back and front of-the instrument a description of one will suffice for both.

The valve-board M is provided adjacent to its lower end with a series of slit-like valveopenings b b, the., which place the exhaustchamber in communication with the several valve-cells, respectively. These openings b are adapted to be closed by inwardly-opening valves 16, which are suitably paddedto make them air-tight and are mounted on the valve-lever 17. These levers 17 are fulcrumed on the valve -boa-rd M at and are held in place by a pin 18. The lever-fulcrum is a pointed projectionphaving an opening extending through it and the body of the lever to receive the pin 18 and enlarged at one side to permit the movement of the lever. The valve-lever 17' receives its motion in opening from the key 3 through the medium of the push-pins 19 and 20 and lever 21 and bellcrank 22, as shown. The push-pin 20 passes through a packed opening as it enters the valve-cell. The valves 16 are closed and held closed by a light spring 23, assisted by airpressure.

It will be observed that the valve-cells extend-practically from bottom to top of the mechanism. of the instrument and make ample provision for the location of numerous reed-cells, which are indicated by O. The reed-cells communicate with the valve-cells and contain reeds R. The reed-cells maybe arranged as shown on the lower side of Fig. 2 and adapted to contain one vlarge reed, or subdivided, as shown at the upper side of same figure, and adapted to contain two reeds. The mouths or entrances of the reed-cells are adapted to be closed by a valve or mute P, which extends lengthwise of the instrument, and is adapted to operate on a whole set of reeds at a time. lVhen subdivision of the reed-cells is employed, a side opening s is employed, and these openings are provided with mutes P. The mutes are operated by stops on the instrument by connecting mechanism, which is not shown, but is well understood in the art. The employment of the subdivided reed-cells provides for the employment of two sets of treble reeds with one set of bass reeds, makes the construction compact and the reeds not relatively removed from each other or from the valve which controls both, and affects the tone either by the different directions iu which they receive air or otherwise.

The valves on the back of the instrument are operated, through the medium of the pushpin 24, bell-crank 25, connection 26, lever 27,

connection 28, and valve-lever 29, by the key 2. Thevalve-lever' 29 is essentially thesame"4 as-17, and further description may be omitted. The connection 28 passes thro ugh packed or padded openings in the valve and reedboards to prevent the entrance of air from other sources than' through the reeds.

The absence of the keyboards and the keyboard mechanism on the back of the instru'- ment permits reeds and reed-cells to be arranged over the entire back of the reed-board Y, as shown.

It will be observed that provision'is made in the construction for the use of'a large nmber of reeds, and l am enabled by the construct-ion to thus make a reed-organ of great power and variety of tones.

There is provided a manual-coupler con'- sisting of a rocking bar 30, passing trans'- versely under the lower bank of keys and; hinged to the casing at 3l. The bar 30 car'- ries al set of push-pins' 32, which when in up right position are capable of sliding'arid communicating motion from the keys to the bellcr'an-k 25. Tovthrow the coupler out of operation, the bar 30 is moved from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 3 to the position shown in'dotted lines in thesame iigure,whic`h throws the push-pins 32 out of operative p0- sition. 'The mechanismfor operating the bar' 30 is not shown. The bell-crank 25 is provided with a notch 25a, which permits this rocking motion of the bar 30.

When the instrument is in' use, the performer may operate the bellows by means of' the treadle, but in view of the limi-ted' amount of power that the performer canl with comfort supply it would' be impractic'able to bring into effective use all of the reeds'of the instrument. powerful auxiliary exhaust bellowsor pump (not shown) which is connected to the exhaast-chamber 4 by means ofthe opening 33. This bellows may be located within'tlie instrument or outside. Bymeans of-this'bellowsv or pump, which maybe operated byanother person than the performerl or by power', the full capacity of the organ may be developed'.

When the organ is pumped by the .performer, only portions of the reeds can be successfully employed, and the capacity ofy the chamber between the valve-boards could be to advantage reduced, both on account of the labor of pumping, the ready response of' the reeds, and the acoustic properties of the instrument. This resultl is obtained by the au'- tomatic closing of the valve 6.v

The length of the body of the instrument There is therefore provided a may beconsiderably greater than that of the keyboar'd,which would cause the connection from the keys to the valves to diverge, and there are numerous other details of the construction which it is not necessary to point out or describe, as they are quite obvious to one skilled in .the art.

` What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isy 1. The combination in an organ of a divided chamber between the valve-boards and stantially as set forth.

2. In a reed-organ a valve-board havingl valve-openings, a reed-board and reeds, intermediate valve-cells, an inwardly-opening valve located in the cell, a valve-lever parallel with the valve-board and fulcrumed4 thereon and means for operating the lever,

substantially as set forth.

3. The combination in a reed-organ of a valve-board having valve-openings, a' reedboard with reed-cells and reeds, valve-cells between the' valve-board and reed-board, an inwardly-opening valve and valve-lever parallel with the valve-board and both located within the' valve-cell and key and connecting' mechanism for operating the valves, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination in a reed-organ of the' valve-boards M, N, having valve-openings" fulcr'nm-pin, an opening in the lever andy IOO pointed projection to receive the pin and permit thel motion of the lever, and a valve on the lever in a plane substantially with the fulcrltm, combined substantially as set forth.

In witness whereof I have affixed my4 signature in presence of witnesses.

FREEMAN D. DEXTER. Witnesses:

NELSON W. SHoLEs, CHARLEs K. BEAM-AN, HUDSON R. PARKER. 

